Each March for the past 12 or 13 years, Elizabeth “Tshaukuesh” Penashue leads members of her community on a three-week trek across frozen rivers and mountains, to the remote lakes region where she was born and raised. The Elder from the Innu Nation of Labrador (Newfoundland, Canada) calls her walk Meshkanu, which is the Innu word for “the good path.”

She walks to raise awareness of the problems facing the Innu peoples, and to make a statement to the Canadian government: “We are still here.” [You can see the 2013 short documentary film about her annual walk here and follow her blog here.]

The walk is also part of her larger desire to preserve the old ways for her children and grandchildren. “Before, we didn’t use ‘white’ things and we didn’t use government money. We knew how to live on the land. Everyone knew what to do…. The elders and parents were like teachers. In the bush/in the country your mind is clear, your feelings are clear, you are healthy and happy. This is why it is important for the people to continue to go out on the land. I know we live in the culture and world of today, but that does not mean we have to loose or let go of who we are and where we came from. It is important for the Innu to hold on to some things, to carry those things into the present and the future. Our children need to know both ways.” (From Penashue’s blogspot, May 2009)

At the final event of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum that took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba, Penashue spoke simply and emotionally. The TRC had brought these traditional knowledge keepers together from across the country for a forum on “reconciliation” that was livecast around the globe. A small, wiry woman who exudes a sense of deep calm and caring, her words were powerful.

Elizabeth Penashue at the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, which took place at the U of M on June 25 and 26. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land and Innu culture — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

 

Besides her annual walk, for more than thirty year she has been a tireless activist for the preservation of her culture and the environment. She’s been arrested five times and in 1989, spent two months in jail for protesting NATO’s low-level missile training program. More recently, she’s led protests against the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric dam project, which will flood much of what’s left of the ancestral Innu land.

“The government doesn’t understand,” said Penashue. “Everyone wants a job, but there is too much damage to the land.”

When she sees news reports about machines on the land on TV, it’s painful for her. “All the machines. I say ‘Please, don’t bring the machines to our land…. This is my home.

“I wish you understand how I feel — like Mother Earth’ — when machines cut [down] trees, it’s the same as when we are cut,” she said, holding her arm to demonstrate.

“Maybe Mother Earth feels the same.”

Penasue has said she wants to show the government what she’s doing, to respect the land. “Everything is like a circle. Everything. [A circle] where we respect animals, the land, rivers, my people and children. It’s not easy — same thing when I’m going for a canoe trip or a walk, it’s not easy.”

Penashue went on to speak about her desire to save the land from further damage and about the deep hurt she feels. “I talk to the animals, I talk to the water, I say, ‘I will try to help you.’ But the government don’t listen to people, don’t listen to women. I want to save the land for the children.”

She called for other women to join her. “Where are the women?” she asked.

“What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

Penashue: “What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

She described previous walks of protest and time she spent in jail. “I used to think men are strong, it’s not up to me. But women are strong too…. I say, I’m going to try,” she finished.

“I’m going to try.”

***

Penashue was one of the forum participants, 15 Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, all of whom told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The commission had asked all participants to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing. The event was livecast across Canada and around the world.

There were three questions under consideration:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Speaking on the second day of the two day event, Stephen Augustine of Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nations (NB) echoed the sentiment in Penashue’s statements, emphasizing the Indigenous belief that “we belong to the land rather than the land belonging to us.”

When I was young, he said, I didn’t know Aboriginal philosophies — “we live our philosophies rather than expressing them,” he said. “Now that we are becoming our elders, we are also becoming interpreters and teachers of our culture.”

He spoke about the aspect of “negotiation” in Indigenous culture, demonstrated through ceremonies and in the creation story. He described the creation story as a story in which “all elements, including human elements” were part of a negotiation; ceremonies, too, emulate this process.

“We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation,” he explained.

Augustine: “We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation.”

***

Jerry Saddleback at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

An Elder and a member of the Samson Cree Nation in Hobbema, AB, Jerry Saddleback is also Canada’s leading expert on Cree syllabics.

He spoke about forgiveness, and noted that there is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to forget or to release.

Saddleback: There is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to “forget or to release.”

 

“Prayer is also a way of releasing,” he added.

Another word, he said, means “It’s being done for show.” He offered a final word, which means “reciprocity, fairness, point for point.”

He suggested that seemingly “sweeping statements” his ancestors had made had been “twisted” away from the spirit in which they were spoken.

When Europeans first arrived, Saddleback said, “We called them our first cousins — the people from the other part of the world.”

He remembered that elders had a way of looking at the bigger picture to seek balance.

“They believed and we believe everything is alive and created in the Creator’s image. We lived at one with the Earth, Mother Earth, and the Creator made everything perfect — let’s leave it as it is.”

During the Residential Schools era, he said, “we hid our ceremonial objects [much in the same way that the] King was hiding the Baby Jesus.

“We believe in a compassionate, kind God who is gentle and caring. We pray for people who do wrong until us … as we would want people to pray for us.”

***

Also speaking was Maria Campbell, a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker and Elder from Saskatchewan and a 2012 Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow at the University of Ottawa.

Maria Campbell at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

She told people that “Elizabeth [Penashue] has always been a role model” for her and then introduced her own work, saying, “All of us have different ways we serve our people.”

In her work as a Trudeau Fellow, Campbell has been researching violence against Aboriginal women. She’s been looking at early documents that go back as far as the 1600s, many of them Jesuit records. “There are ugly things in those journals, but there are also many powerful things,” she said.

“We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men. It is not only white men who kill or batter our women. Men have to step up. We can’t go on blaming; we have to take responsibility. We have to talk about that.”

Campbell: “We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men.”

She said that sometimes people said to her ‘Don’t be talking about stuff like that, don’t be making noise.’

“But it’s part of the role of the commission. As long as we stay sick, the government will always give us money to pick our scabs.”

Recounting workshops that she went to in her youth, she told the circle that “Elders from elsewhere would come into town and sit with us and tell us stories — and make us feel good about who were are.

“We may not all have as much knowledge, but we all have passion and we have respect for each other — and I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell: “I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell emphasized the importance of self-responsibility, and also spoke about child poverty. “We need to be taking responsibility [for this in our communities] and for sharing our stories.

“I don’t believe it should be about ‘them’ — if they care, they’ll help and nurture. To think that the government is going to make any changes, forget it. It’s not going to happen,” she pointed out.

“I feel so privileged and honoured to be here. Thank you for sharing your really good knowledge. But men, get your act together. Get out there and teach your young men., We can be talking in the institution forever but they need you in the communities.”

***

Speaking again on the second day, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations (BC) Elder Barney Williams said how moved he was by what had been spoken at the event. “I am reminded how important all of you are as keepers of knowledge.”

He described how in his territory, the whale hunters, after they killed a whale, would then invite everyone to share in the feast — “as we are doing now. We are inviting all of our nations to share….

“We’ve lost that. We have to do that again.”

Continuing with the theme of finding reconciliation, he told those gathered, “We need to be cognizant of the fact that we are talking about a place and time when no English was spoken.”

When he was a boy, he said, his grandmother told him, “Listen to me. You’re going to fly away, you’re going to speak differently. But don’t ever forget who you are. Don’t ever forget where you come from.

“I’ve walked with that. I’ve embraced another form of teaching and have done my best to bring these all together,” he said.

He feels privileged to be a knowledge keeper, he said. “Through storytelling we’re given such profound wisdom — rather than saying ‘don’t do that!’

“The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

Williams: “The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

He told Campbell and the others that he would go home to tell his people about the invitation to gather.

Read Part 1 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 4 here.

See this story on the Walking With Our Sisters quilt to honour missing and murdered Aboriginal women. It was unveiled at Neechi Commons on July 3.

Check back for the final part of this special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

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